We were in no hurry to leave Loft Mountain, but slowly packed our things the morning of Memorial Day and followed Skyline Drive south until we exited the Shenandoah National Park. The Sherando Lake Recreational Area was our destination, and we knew that it would be crowded due to the holiday. We made a stop at the post office to mail Mrs. Robin Turner (our laundry and RV battery savior in Ocracoke) a thank you card that Cooper made for her. We then stopped at Walmart and again at a Mexican restaurant for lunch – again, no hurry at all. Shortly before we got to the campground we spotted a huge stack of wood in some hilbilly’s front yard and turned around to buy it. For the bargain price of $10 we had more wood than we could fit in the outside storage compartments, putting the rest inside with us. After entering the park we drove by the main lake on our way to the campground. We were blown away by just how crowded the lake area was; every Virginia hillbilly within a 25-mile radius must have been there. Fortunately, the campground itself wasn’t crowded at all. We avoided going to the lake altogether that first day and spent our time towards the back of the park, away from the masses. The kids were happy with that decision as we found a nice playground for them to enjoy.
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The next morning the park was nearly empty and we rode our bikes down to Sherando Lake, the park’s main attraction and namesake. You’d never know how crowded it was the day before if not for all of the trash left behind. It’s amazing how much litter there was in the picnic and beach areas by the lake: soda and beer cans, every kind of junk food wrapper, watermelon rinds, foil pans, etc. It made for a good lesson for Cooper about cleaning up after ourselves. We locked the bikes up and hiked around the lower lake with the kids on our backs. About a quarter mile into our hike we found an old man fishing by himself, and he had just landed a rainbow trout. The lake is stocked with them and he had three more in his cooler. He showed the kids his fish and was more than happy to tell me what type of bait and tackle I needed to catch my own.
A trout dinner sounded great, so I headed back to Walmart to gear up while Jennifer stayed behind and played with the kids. A fishing license, cheap rod and reel combo, and a jar of PowerBait (basically PlayDoh that smells like fish) was all I needed. I tried my luck that evening but only caught a blue gill and got absolutely soaked in the rain. I tried again the next morning and managed to catch two tiny trout, but gave up on finding us dinner after two hours of fishing.
After I gave up on fishing, we took the kids down to the beach to swim in the lake. The lake is a surreal place, especially with hardly anyone else there. The tree-covered mountains come all the way down to the edge of the lake, which has a perfect little island that you can swim out to. The whole thing looks like something that Disney would have planned for one of their resorts. We had a great time playing in the water, skipping rocks, and goofing off in general. Jennifer was happy to get some sun after a few days of rain.
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Once the kids swam themselves to exhaustion, we went back to the campground. The rangers were felling a big tree right next to our site; the kids enjoyed having a front-row seat to the action. Our neighbors two sites over packed up and left, so we moved into their campsite as it was a bit nicer since it bordered the creek. It was here that Brooks learned how to squish bugs with his foot.
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After the kids were done playing in the creek that evening, we showered as a family. Cooper and Brooks were forced to take turns in the cold shower, which had them screaming and crying at the tops of their lungs. The bathrooms have large screen panels by the roofline to let the humidity out . . . and sound along with it. I’m sure everyone in the campground wondered why we were mercilessly beating our kids in the shower, but despite a few odd looks, nobody said anything to us. We were out of there the next day. It was our favorite campground so far.